Jubilance
by wolfluvermh
Summary: Every night, that dashing Prince awaits her on a mountaintop forgotten by all who ever once knew of it; but he is not her Prince Charming, nor is he anyone's. He only comes for the jubilance of the stars. /Chaos and Firefly, both OCs.


**Okay, I promised more than one preview, I know, but this seemed just too irresistible. A preview will come soon. I promise. **

**Chaos and Firefly. Yep.**

**For all those that don't read my stories and are tired of my stories clogging up the archive: ...I'm sorry, so sorry.**

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**Jubilance**

"Is he here yet?" whispers Jubilee, tripping over Firefly's paws. Orange eyes repeatedly scan the horizon, amber rifling over the line of towering rocky crags.

Firefly chuckles, her high voice lilting over the notes. "You see as good as I do. There is no Wolf Prince in sight."

"He's going to be the Wolf _King_ soon!" corrects Jubilee in a hushed tone of voice, amber eyes swiveling. Adoration glimmers there. Innocence crowns her expression. "I want to tell all my friends I've met the Wolf King! And someday, my children! And then my grandchildren!"

With a tranquil shake of her head, Firefly sighs. The weight of her little sister's inability to comprehend the true life of a Prince settles on her heart like filth at the bottom of the riverbed. Before meeting the Prince, of course, she'd assumed that royalty lead luxurious lives. "Ju, meeting a Wolf King is really nothing special."

"You're just saying that cuz you two cuddle up here all the time." Jubilee hops from her bed on Firefly's paws, her claws scraping against stone as she scales a small boulder encrusted with diamonds to reach a higher vantage point. The dying sun stains the very tips of her ash grey fur bloody red, and bathes the landscape in vivid orange and gold. "Are you sure you can't hear anything?"

Ignoring her sister's jibe about the Prince, Firefly's ears prick, swiveling to the direct she knows that he will emerge from. All that sounds is the shallow breathing of a lizard far below, the distant songs of chanting wolves, and the soft whir of crickets slowly dying as day fades into night. "With that cloak of his, it's not like I can hear him coming at all," she mutters beneath her breath.

"You're right," agrees a masculine voice from behind her, sending chills up Firefly's spine. Her fur stands on end. Jumping to her feet, she turns to meet Chaos, the regal Wolf Prince, balancing precariously on the edge of the chasm.

The cliffs are a marvelous thing; most of the time, wolves don't dare venture to the perilous rocky slopes and jagged plateaus of this particular region. Though it lies directly outside a heavily populated Wolfen hunting lands, very few find it rewarding to brave the tumbling cliffs and boulders. However, when you're born into a family with a status as low as Firefly's, you tend to do insane things to find both food and entertainment. The heart of the cliffs and mountains, this deep, deep chasm that seems to lead to hell itself, is where only Firefly dares journey, Firefly and Chaos.

Miniscule diamonds are embedded in the grey stone atop the cliff they'll scale together; a few boulders that'd tumbled down the incline have sparkling diamonds as well, but not as many. The orange sun over the diamonds sends them scintillating almost too brightly for the eyes. Below them, in the long chasm lasting forever in either direction, fog mulls about, greying the bottomless fall into dull silver.

Balancing carefully on the very edge of the cliff is a familiar face, a smile already tweaking the corners of his black lips. The cloak flutters meekly around his long legs, the shadowy fabric like liquid darkness. Turning away from his precarious perch on the edge of danger, Chaos smiles at Firefly, eyebrows cocked.

Perhaps the most painful thing about Chaos is that he is such a Prince Charming, inside and out. Probably the largest wolf Firefly has ever come across, he towers high above her below-average size, always looking down upon her. Muscles stir beneath his snowy white coat of majestic fur, accenting the athletic build he had been born with. Broad shoulders seem to only expand the regal width of his erect mane, only seem to illustrate the magnificence in his flawlessly balanced features. To top it off, the most beautiful twinkling purple eyes gaze down at her, the amber sunsets sending a golden sheen over the irises.

As far as mates go, Chaos could make quite a decent one; despite the hectic life he'd been granted as a Prince, heir to the throne, the wolf had shown startling generosity and kindness the moment his outer walls of protection had been breached. Out of the tragedy of his childhood, something beautiful had been born. His own experiences with pain has sculpted a wolf with the empathy of an older soul. Repeatedly scooping her battered family anonymously out of tough situations and attending small pack get-togethers under the cover of darkness, the genteel Prince has been thus far one of the kindest wolves Firefly knows – but the real test has emerged: a male wolf must always be tested around pups.

"Oh my stars." Jubilee's face goes slack, mouth dropping open. "Is that really him?"

Chaos smirks. He crouches before Jubilee, laying his chin to the ground to properly look into her eyes. "You must be related to Firefly. Got her fiery eyes. I, miss…?"

"Jubilee," inserts Firefly.

"I, Miss Jubilee, am Chaos, Prince of Wolves and King of Sarcasm." He sweeps into a low bow, pressing his forehead to the stone and sliding one leg out in front of him. "Honored to meet you."

"You shouldn't do that!" breathes Jubilee in terror, glancing around, her tail between her legs. "A Prince bowing to me is a violation of the –"

"And yet, I don't see anyone around here to report us." Chaos smiles kindly, rising, squaring his neat ears. "However, there is your sister. She's always been a very sketchy character."

Jubilee studies Chaos. Uncertainty rules her face. Cautiously, she inches forward. "Hi, Chaos," she greets after several moments of studying the Prince's face. "I'm Firefly's sister. Do you love her?"

Firefly moans and buries her head beneath her paws. Doom clutches her heart with an icy fist, her throat peppering with nails of dread.

Chaos is taken aback. His eyebrows scrunch together. "Uh… what?"

"Nothing." Jubilee's voice is a poor imitation of nonchalance. "Just wondering. So, can you take me up to the cliffy thing?"

Firefly bolts to her feet, legs splayed wide. The agreement of Jubilee accompanying her and getting a glimpse of the famous royalty had been that she didn't scale the cliff. Mother had strictly forbidden it, drilled the rule into Firefly's head. And yet, Firefly cannot protest the swiftness Chaos acts with; he scoops Jubilee up gently, grabbing her gingerly by the scruff, proceeding to hop up the cliff with little difficulties. His feet fleeting touch the stone as he climbs higher, cloak like a butterfly's wings waving a wistful farewell.

Firefly moans, but she follows, tender paws wailing with complaints at the coarse stone beneath her feet. The diamonds, though beautiful, are sharp as daggers when necessary.

At the peak of the cliff, Chaos sets Jubilee down. Jubilee's paws skitter over the stone. As Firefly draws near, already, a stream of words floats from the little wolf's lips. Firefly ignores her sister's babbled conversations to glare daggers at Chaos.

"You shouldn't have done that!" Firefly hisses crossly. Her anger rises in waves, heating the cooling air. The last teardrop of sunlight slips over the horizon, letting the world first fade into rosy brown then cool grey then pitch black.

"Done what?" Chaos looks genuinely confused, his head tilted to one side.

"Taken Ju up here!" Firefly howls. "A fall from this height is fatal, Chaos!"

The wolf shrugs with infuriating indifference. "Sorry. Look, if she slips, I'll do some awesome shadow-charming and retrieve her. Don't worry about it."

Firefly growls under her breath. She prowls over to her little sister, curling around Jubilee's little frame. The warmth of her sibling is comforting, but not near comforting enough. "You can't do an inkling of shadow-charming, Chaos! We both know that!"

Chaos winces. It's hardly noticeable, as stealthy as the ocean breeze, but a quiet stir in his purple eyes occurs, a shift in winds. His subtly has been his rule, his technique in the social battlefield he deals with; never back down to a foe, even if you're the little wolf. And he's become brilliant at hiding it. In fact, Firefly only barely notices that the Prince deflates slightly.

"Ouch. Because I needed that."

Guilt slams into Firefly like the weight of a boulder. Her ears go slack and her tail curls slightly between her legs. It's Firefly's turn to deflate, glancing away with poorly concealed shame. Chaos is much too gentlemanly to point it out in any way, but she'd hurt him more than she'd realized. She should've known; he'd come early, and he never arrives before sunset unless it's been a particularly rough day at the Palace.

Awkwardness envelopes the situation. To avoid meeting the piercing gaze of the Prince, Firefly studies the sky; a nebulous mottle of stars and dispersing clouds, it maintains beauty unlike that of any other world. Twinkling lights in shades of blue and purple burn above, cold radiance unequalled by any earthly light. This place, so untouched by and life of any kind, spares the best view of these gorgeous lights than anywhere else on Earth, as far as Firefly is concerned.

Jubilee seems just as entranced as Firefly had been on her first visit. The pup's mouth is gaping, her orange eyes cast skyward. She tumbles out clumsily from the cage forged from Firefly's legs, blinded by the brilliance of the stars. As soon as she leaves Firefly's protection, Chaos tears his gaze from the stars, watching her with the vigilance of a hawk.

Holding true to his promise.

The night stretches on. Firefly has no need for speech, and neither does Chaos, thankfully. No, they'll spend entire nights without saying a single word to one another. On the contrary, they'll also spend nights rambling on without a minute of silence. But today is not rambunctious, today is merely quiet; and Firefly loves it like that, love the silence.

The silence grants her time to think. About home. About politics. About her scanty job singing all day at the gathering grounds of wolves. About Jubilee. About Chaos.

The idea had always been there that, if somehow the Prince fell in love with her, all of Firefly's problems would be fixed. Now, when she knows him and herself better, she knows that any approach of that manner would've gone poorly – but this fragile friendship is much more rewarding. She's been content being the Prince's friend. She knows him like the back of her paw. But every time she sees him on a night like tonight, so clearly tortured behind his walls of steel and so lost in his eyes beneath the indifference, Firefly wants to comfort him, to console him. She isn't certain that she wants to do it on a mere friend level, either.

Of course, romance is a stupid fantasy dreamt up by rich wolves. Firefly loves watching other wolves fall in love – but when you fall in love, you also fall apart, something she's been repeatedly taught by couple after couple. Besides, he's an almighty Prince, and Firefly… is Firefly. The kind of wolf that scrounges after the discarded remains of kills because she has no other food sources. The only one of her litter to survive.

It still doesn't stop Firefly from rising and slowly padding to Chaos's side. Slowly, she sits beside him, not tearing her eyes from the stars. Jubilee, who had previously been carefully batting at Chaos's paws, gapes with a mischievous twinkle in her orange eyes.

Chaos turns his head slightly to acknowledge her company, but he doesn't say a word. His heat seems to sizzle through the cool night air separating them. Firefly might've said something, might've remarked upon the silver moonlight reflecting off the planes of his white fur, but Jubilee jumps the gun.

"Can I wear your cloak?" she bubbles excitedly, batting with the fabric between two paws.

Chaos chuckles, a noise like a piano's keys being run up and down the deeper octaves. "'Course. Here."

It unwinds and floats from his back like a mild shadowy flag, falling upon the rocks and flapping half-heartedly in the wind. Jubilee grins, untangling from Chaos, sticks her butt in the air and prowls towards it. Firefly laughs softly as Jubilee springs with a snarl, landing on the cloak.

"Have you heard the news about that lovesick unicorn?" questions Chaos abruptly, turning to Firefly.

"You're my only source of celebrity gossip," she reminds him with a chuckle.

"Right. Well. Right. Anyway, that high-ranked unicorn he's been pining after for so long? He proposed to her, this morning."

Firefly gasps, her heart fluttering like a bird trapped by her ribcage. She meets Chaos's gaze, which is already trained on her. "What did she say?" Firefly demands breathlessly.

"_Yes_, of course." Chaos's eyes twinkle like the stars framing him. "She said yes and a bunch of other dramatic gaga stuff. It's sort of funny; I don't understand how he's not gay. Like, all this time? Straight? I've known him since I began to talk. I tell you what, they're going to have five daughters, I bet you. Hold me to that."

"That's mean," scolds Firefly, giggling. Entertaining the subject, she considers a different approach. "They'll have four daughters and one son." She gnaws on her lip for a second. "But he'll have a ridiculous name."

"Mud!" suggests Chaos playfully. A deep chuckle thunders low in his chest, so thick it can hardly be heard.

Firefly lets loose a quick howl of laughter. It echoes off the chasm, a ghost of her voice. "So cruel, and yet utterly hilarious!"

"Life tends to work like that," agrees Chaos, a mysterious tone entering his voice.

They lapse into tender silence, each ignoring the mewls of Jubilee playing with Chaos's regal cloak. Firefly smiles to herself, studying the beautiful, beautiful stars. His heat seems to bake the earth.

"I can't stay much longer," murmurs Chaos. His intense purple gaze turns from Jubilee to Firefly. "My sister – she's been played with by yet another male, and – well – she wants me to track him down. Fled, poor idiot. He'll be sorry, but not that sorry. This has got to be the third one, this year alone, my poor gullible sister."

Firefly smiles sweetly despite her internal torrent of emotions. "Don't worry about it." She rises. "It's not like you'll be able to hold yourself back for long. And, let's be honest." Firefly strikes a lavish pose, lashing her head to the sky and pursing her lips. "Who can resist?"

Chaos laughs boomingly. He, too, rises. "You know, someday, I won't come, and you'll be crawling to the Palace with worry," he teases. "What would you do without your one and only source of entertainment?"

"Find someone actually funny," counters Firefly.

Chaos laughs melodiously. "Well, good luck with that." His eyes soften slightly, malleable beneath Firefly's gaze. "I won't have to leave just yet, I don't think. She won't murder me if I'm a few minutes late."

Firefly shrugs indecisively. "We are talking about Lidia, right? Isn't she the one that went crazy because she found a worm in her room once, right?"

"It's almost as if you want to be rid of me," points out Chaos mockingly. "Am I so repulsive to you?"

On a normal day, Firefly would've responded with something smart, something cute. But the disguised pain is still there, glimmering in his violet eyes, though hidden beneath humor. And so Firefly settles for something less sarcastic than usual.

"No." Firefly meets his gaze firmly. "In fact, you're not at all. I want you to stay up here on this cliff, I want to teach my baby sister your gracious personality as I know it. Because, if there's anyone I want her to grow up to be like, it's you. Who wouldn't dream of a child modelled in your image? You may have idiotic ideas at times, but who doesn't? No, Chaos, I do not find you repulsive at all. In fact, I find you to be the most talented, gentle, kind, generous, and strong wolf in my acquaintance."

"Buttering it on a little thick, don't you think?" Chaos's attempt at humor is frail.

Firefly looks him dead in the eye. "Not at all."

The white wolf releases a slow breath, turning his muzzle to the stars. His ambivalent amethyst eyes are a melting pot of emotion. "Thank you," Chaos breathes, his breath turned silver by the night's embrace. "That's precisely what I needed to hear."

Firefly brushes his shoulder with hers. "Sometimes, we all need a reminder that there's someone out there that notices."

There they sit, sprawled upon the diamond encrusted cliff. The stars glowing dimly above have a wonderful sort of jubilance to them in the way they carouse in groups and silky ribbons. In the peace of the night, that jubilance is highlighted. But, just when Firefly believes that life could not become any more beautiful, a single comet arches through the sky. Its journey is quick as a wink from start to finish, but gorgeous as the tears of the stars themselves. Jubilee gasps in awe, and Chaos growls thickly in approval. Nothing else happens. A mere comet is enough jubilance for one night, it seems.

Chaos eventually clears his throat, rising onto all fours. "Well, I'd better go. She won't let me keep my head if I wait much longer."

Reluctantly, Firefly rises. "Be careful!" she urges, same as every single day since the first. "You'll fall and snap your neck, King Klutz!"

"Right back at you, Ditzy Doo." Chaos smirks. He glances anxiously at the sky, and hurriedly turns towards the direction of the Palace. Glancing over his shoulder, Chaos watches Firefly with those beautifully layered purple eyes. She breathes a goodbye, and he takes off, skipping over the rocks like an angel.

Chaos's pure white coat first streaks over the grey rocks and then slips over the ebony horizon. Swallowing down a torrent of emotions, Firefly watches him until she can watch no more.

After a few moments, Jubilee remarks, "He forgot his cloak."

Firefly turns to see that Jubilee still sits in a swaddle of the shadowy fabric. In his hurry, Chaos had forgotten his most beloved possession. She smiles weakly. "He'll come back for it sooner or later. Just stay away from that edge, alright?"

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**Great to see you all again. How's life been?**

**FUN FACT: Originally, Chaos thought that Crimson would be his heir, so he trained the dragon nonstop and neglected Crimson's younger brother. This lead to the Demon Prince.**

**POLL: Anyone know what's going to happen next without searching through Jumping at Shadows to find out?**

**Ciao,**

**~wolfluvermh**


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